James M. Bailey

James Montgomery Bailey settled into Danbury, Connecticut after serving in the Civil War, and began publishing the Danbury News. Bit by bit, he began inserting humorous pieces into his newspaper, perhaps at first based on real events in his community, but getting wilder and funnier as time went on. In the 1870s, subscriptions to his newspaper poured in from all over the United States from people anxious to read his hilarious stories. Some of them were collected in popular books. By the end of the 1870s Bailey had burned out and his humor became scarcer. Still, he left a fine track record, and we have read many of his hilarious stories in the Basement.Join us on Facebook!